


The Clarity of Hate

by ever_neutral



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-04
Updated: 2010-09-04
Packaged: 2017-10-17 22:31:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/181986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ever_neutral/pseuds/ever_neutral
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Causing eternal hell for his dear brother isn’t a job Damon takes lightly.</p><p>[S1. Canon-compliant.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Clarity of Hate

  
The night Damon is turned, the world is clearer in a way it never was before.

It almost hurts, how much sense the universe now makes. The stars in the night sky wink at him as if in tacit recognition. _Welcome_ , they whisper silently, _to the joke of existence._

As a human, there was no sense to life. He could walk away from the murder-business of the Confederacy on principle and yet be the one seen as a coward; he could fall madly for the vision of an angel who was in reality a demon; he could feel beauty and joy and hope because of a _monster_ – who would be stolen from him by a man who only ever taught him fear and dread and ugliness.

But in death, everything is simple.

~

He promised to love Katherine.

 _Love._ Damon is sure he knows what that means: _Never betray her, never leave her, never turn her away._  Love means to stare into the eyes of a demon and not flinch.

Damon loved Katherine Pierce like Stefan never did.

He sees his brother now with his new vampiric eyes, and feels his veins turn to ice.

He lets his words drop like shards of glass. “Hear this, brother. I will make it an eternity of _misery_ for you.”

It’s true. _Damon always comes through on his promises._

  
\---

_Damon Salvatore is a man driven by two things._

_He loves Katherine. (He hates Katherine.)_

\---

  
Causing eternal hell for his dear brother isn’t a job Damon takes lightly. He goes about destroying Stefan’s life like his own depends on it. _And maybe it does._

He doesn’t give him a single opportunity to strike back. _To betray him, leave him, turn him away._

One thing is clear: _he_ does not get to be happy.

_Who doesn’t, now?_

~

Damon knows Stefan likes to pretend there is still some _humanity_ remaining in him.

But Stefan never knew anything worth knowing. _The closest he’ll ever get to humanity is feeding on it, and feeling it die._

In death, everything is simple.

~

One thing’s for sure: Older brothers have more fun.

While Stefan bumbles around little-boy-lost through the world blindly hunting happiness, Damon… just hunts.

Because _happiness_ is wrapping ice-cold fingers around innocent necks and feeling them crack; it’s the sickly sweet burning taste of living blood as it flows down his throat; it’s the rushing roaring of someone’s life essence through his own dead veins; it’s the rhythm of their heartbeat in his ears and the diminuendo as it slows. It’s placing his dead hand over their heart and feeling the moment it stops.

 _Just like his last living night laying bleeding on the ground_ –  
the blood is warm but he feels _so cold_ \--  
_\-- while they rush to him with burning torches and searing cries of hate._

And as he fades, the last thing he senses is the defeated slowing of his heart.

And the sound of Katherine’s voice.

“I love you, Stefan.”

He has no time to feel any more pain.

  
\---

No one could accuse Damon Salvatore of never learning. In the few “relationships” he strikes up in his un-life, he’s always the one to walk away.

_Love is for those whose hearts still beat._

\---

  
“Because he’s in love with you.”

Damon wagers he’s seen and heard it all and locked it safe in the memory vault; but he still has room to be taken aback by Isobel’s claim to her long-lost daughter.

His eyes automatically turn to Stefan. _It’s an act of habit._

Not that he expects the word of _Isobel_ to be taken as gospel. _Because_ there’s _a woman who should be speaking about love._

_“She left you. She sucks.”_

In death, everything is simple.

_Right?_

He’s trying this new thing where he actually takes his own advice.

~

Damon watches as Stefan folds Elena into his embrace; she wraps her arms around the man she loves, grateful for the comfort.

They both catch Damon’s eye, one after the other, both of them wearing a look he knows well. It’s a tableau he’s never been invited to join.

Isobel was wrong. Damon doesn’t know anything about love anymore.

  
\---

_Damon Salvatore is a man driven by two things._

_He hates Stefan. (He loves him.)_

\---

END


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